


I Like You

by Kaoru_chibimaster



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: First Kiss, Fix It, Fluff, M/M, Pure Unadulterated Fluff, post kh3, short and sweet, sorta - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-13
Updated: 2019-06-13
Packaged: 2020-05-07 06:51:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,483
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19204138
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kaoru_chibimaster/pseuds/Kaoru_chibimaster
Summary: So here they were. Sitting at a bistro Roxas hadn’t even known existed until now. Eating cheesecake and talking about their favorite colors. Somehow, things just worked out this way.





	I Like You

**Author's Note:**

> Pfft ending? What ending? KH3 had a perfectly happy ending, shhh you can’t tell me different. ~~Look, we’re gonna pretend Sora is fine okay?~~

“Wait, let me guess…”

Roxas placed his hand to his chin in a thinking gesture he was partially certain he shared with Sora, but he was willing to ignore little details like those. Even _Sora_ would chew him out if he let that get to him. Here they were, sitting at a bistro Roxas hadn’t even known existed until now. Eating cheesecake on Sora’s recommendation and talking about their favorite colors. It was an outing, something fun. Roxas didn’t want to ruin that by bringing the mood down. He let his eyes trail over Sora’s far more casual outfit, just as much so as how Roxas was dressed, clad only in a black tank top and red shorts. In fact, that seemed to be a theme with him; the latter color in particular.

“Your favorite color is red?”

Although the thinking was for show, if Roxas was being honest with himself he honestly didn’t know what Sora’s favorite color was. All that was left for him were guessing and reasoning. Observation. He had to learn everything about Sora because, he realized, he didn’t really know _anything_ about Sora. He was constantly this presence in Roxas’ life, like an insistent ambience in the background, but their connection ended at that. A connection. A bond between two people so intricately woven into one another’s lives that sometimes it was hard to tell where one of them ended and the other began.

And yet so impersonal that it was like looking at a stranger who happened to have the same face.

Roxas knew Sora grew up on Destiny Islands. He knew Sora was an incomprehensible mixture of pure energy and pure laziness, caught between constantly wanting to be on the move and oftentimes wanting to just lie down where he stood and take a nap. He knew Sora was too kind, too giving, for his own good. He knew Sora had a sassy streak to him that was as amusing as it could be infuriating.

Beyond that? He knew nothing. He held none of Sora’s memories, never had. It’d been why he was so…empty when he first came into being. Sure, he’d been Sora’s Nobody, but he couldn’t identify himself with his other. He couldn’t see himself as anyone but Roxas. He didn’t know who Sora’s parents were, what his childhood was like, what his schooling was like, what his favorite foods were, his favorite toys…

His favorite color…

Roxas was going to fix that. He was going to learn all of these things, one by one, no matter how long it took. Not because he felt obligated, no. He could admit to owing a good number of favors to Sora for giving Roxas a body; a chance to be real. But that wasn’t what this was about.

He’d learned over the course of time spent inside Sora’s heart, feeling his feelings and experiencing his thoughts, that he wanted to know.

He wanted to know Sora. He wanted to know the boy who fought so hard to bring him back when he had no reason to want to. He wanted to know the boy who smiled so brightly at him when he returned, despite the complications Roxas had brought into his life. He wanted to know the savior of the universe for what he really was.

He wanted to know because he…just really wanted to be near Sora. Roxas felt slightly ridiculous at the thought, like he was some hapless moth drawn to a bonfire, but that was _Sora_. So bright and warm and just…

Roxas huffed a short sigh at himself, realizing he was getting a little too into his gushing. Yes, it was _Sora_ , but…well…

It was just Sora. He could stand to calm down a bit.

So. Back to the matter at hand, he supposed.

Favorite color.

“Actually, I don’t have a favorite color,” Sora grinned. “I like them all.”

That…

That was…

Somehow, that was not surprising.

“Leave it to you to be weird,” Roxas snorted, rolling his eyes playfully. He tried not to smile too wide when Sora pouted at him. He didn’t want to be too obvious.

He wasn’t sure how he felt, slowly realizing what he was trying not to be obvious about.

“It is not weird!”

Sora crossed his arms in a mock fit—not even reacting when his knuckles scuffed the table from the quick movement, though Roxas winced for him—and sat stock straight in his seat. Like a puffed up cat, really.

“Well how about you then, Mister Not-Weird, what’s your favorite color?” he demanded. It was childish. Petulant. Not at all something that should’ve been as cute as Roxas viewed it. Not when he saw the twinkle of genuine curiosity in Sora’s eyes, or the quiver of a barely held back smile on his lips. As if he couldn’t quite hold up the angry façade for long.

It was so sincerely _Sora_ that Roxas found himself wanting to smile back automatically, unsure of why he even would. Instead, he dipped the corners of his mouth into a frown as he thought on Sora’s question.

Roxas, thinking back, realized he didn’t really have a well-thought out answer. It’d never even really occurred to him before to have a favorite color. That sort of thing was inconsequential in his day to day duties of organization life, even more so in the aftermath. What colors _did_ he like? He wanted to say he’d examined each and every one of them and determined their worth and potential for himself. He wished he could discuss the intricacies of each shade of yellow, or how pink had a different connotation based on its hue, or how a bright, angry red felt different than a muted, warm burgundy.

Instead he, like an idiot, looked Sora straight in the eye and said “blue” without a second thought.

In his defense, it was a nice color. And they were nice eyes.

“Blue?” Sora tapped his chin and thought about it for a second before realization lit up his expression. “Ohhh! I’m guessing because it’s like the color of sea-salt ice cream?”

Roxas was silent for a moment.

“…Sure.” He wasn’t sure if it was a good thing that Sora was astronomically oblivious or if this meant Roxas was screwed for the rest of forever.

“Okay, my turn to ask a question!”

Right. Somehow this had become less a game of ‘get to know Sora’ and more a ‘get to know each other’ sort of thing. Despite the fact that Roxas’ whole existence had consisted of eighty percent work, fifteen percent hardship and five percent ice cream.

Well. Maybe ten percent ice cream, when he thought about it.

“Hmm… What’s your favorite skateboard trick?”

Somehow Sora—sweet, doofy Sora—had enough forethought to realize there wasn’t much to Roxas’ life though. He had yet to ask a question Roxas couldn’t answer. It danced to the tune of considerate and endearing in time with a tempo Roxas was comfortable with. How Sora did that, he’d never understand.

Though this one, he supposed, was a little difficult to give a single answer to. He didn’t really have one specific skateboard trick he favored. He supposed it be best to just blindly choose so that his side of the conversation didn’t come across as so wishy washy. It was irrational, really, but he didn’t want to sit there in front of Sora and look like he had no clue what he was doing. Even if it was often true…

“Uhh…kickflip, I guess. Yours?”

Sora rubbed the back of his head and grinned sheepishly.

“Same? I haven’t practiced much. Most of what I know of it, I got from you…”

He was grimacing before Sora even finished his sentence, Roxas realized. He rubbed at his cheek thoughtlessly, just barely noting the downward pull on his jaw muscles.

“I’m pretty sure I only know how to skateboard because you know how to surf.”

Great. This was exactly what Roxas wanted to avoid. The last thing he wanted to do in the midst of his ‘get to know you session’ with Sora was discuss the qualities they shared. Not when he knew why they shared them.

“Huh?” Sora blinked in surprise, somehow having not picked up on what Roxas had. Probably for the best. “How’d you know that?”

It was a logical conclusion to come to. Skateboarding was like surfing on land anyway, so it was no wonder when one simply thought about it. But that was the thing: he didn’t _know_. That was what they were here to fix.

“Lucky guess,” was all he said though. He was adamant not to get into the depressing details of how he came from someone he knew nothing about.

“Hmm. Yeah, I guess so. I haven’t been on the waves in forever, though…” A wistful look crossed Sora’s eye as he spoke, a reminder to Roxas that he hadn’t exactly had it easy either since his journey began. Dragged from home and forced into a conflict he never asked nor deserved to be a part of. His whole life turned upside down from the moment that keyblade had appeared in his hand. Roxas knew. He didn’t have to remember, but he _knew_. No one’s life was simple with a keyblade in the mix.

“What’s it like?” Roxas asked, leaning forward so that his elbow was on the table—he made sure not to make a fool of himself by placing it in the crumbs of his dessert—and his chin rested in his hand. Sora seemed to automatically lean forward as well.

“What? Surfing?”

“No.” Roxas could guess what that was like. He wanted more than that. He wanted to hear everything. “I mean, what’s it like living on the islands?”

“Oh!” There was wide grin that pulled at Sora’s cheeks then. Wide and proud and just…happy. For as much as they looked alike, Roxas didn’t think he could ever smile quite like that. It was a marvel, really. “Well…hmm. Let’s see.”

Sora tapped his finger with his chin, the other hand rested in the crook of his elbow. His expression still open, though the smile had thinned into a somewhat pouty ‘thinking face’. The sort where he pursed his lips and knitted his brow, and Roxas found himself leaning even closer. Thinking to himself how ‘cute’ it was—

Er. Maybe he ought to slow down a bit there and let Sora talk.

“It’s like…well, I guess it’s kinda quiet. Maybe a little boring?” Sora chuckled, scratching at his cheek sheepishly. “The main island is pretty big, but there’s not much to do unless you’re on the play island. And even then there’s not much more to do. Maybe that’s why we were so set on leaving.”

The tiny grin Sora had sported slipped away as the wistful look returned. Sora seemed faraway then, reliving his island days in his mind, and Roxas found himself sucked into his words as well.

“It was beautiful, though. Especially during sunset. Maybe not as brilliant as Twilight Town’s, but still amazing. We’d sit at the big paopu tree past the bridge and just watch it until it was dark enough that we had to go home. Mom and Dad were always back from work around that time, and you could smell whatever they had on the stove for dinner from down the street. Or sometime’s I’d eat at Riku’s place and his mom would cook these huge meals. And during the day… It was summer when everything happened, so there wasn’t any school. We’d just spend the entire day, sunrise to sunset, playing on the island. We’d race each other, and play fight, and build sandcastles. Heh…we’d surf too. Or just swim. Kairi and Selphie would collect seashells and Tidus would be up by the treehouse practicing. Sometimes he and Wakka would explore the island for a bit. I’d always take a nap on the beach…until Riku and Kairi bugged me into helping build the raft…”

He went on and on, and Roxas could see it. He could imagine it perfectly. He knew nothing of that life: he knew none of the locations or the activities. Kairi and Riku were the only names he knew. He couldn’t recollect Sora’s parents or feel the imprint of island life ingrained in him. But Sora described it so perfectly that Roxas could practically taste his parents’ cooking, smell the salty sea air, feel the grit of sand against his skin. If he thought hard enough, he imagined he could see the outline of three other young kids on that island. He knew what the play island itself looked like; he’d been there himself. But this was a part of Sora’s life he didn’t know, and he ate every word up greedily as a result.

He thought he might feel jealous that Sora had a childhood to think back on and Roxas had no such thing. But he didn’t. He felt happy, peaceful. He knew he could sit at that table and listen to Sora describe his home for hours.

“…Tell me if I’m rambling though,” he caught Sora say, and Roxas quickly shook his head.

“No, I like listening to you talk.”

He was sure the way he said that, in such a soft, warm tone, was supposed to raise some flags. The way he felt his lips curling into a tiny smile as Sora spoke. The sappy look he was sure tinged his expression.

Just that fact that he admitted out loud to liking the sound of Sora’s voice should’ve sent him retreating. It should’ve had him crawling back into his shell, cloaked in uncertainty and inexperience. He wanted to question whatever this was he was feeling for his other. Surely it was wrong. He came from Sora—how could he possibly be attracted to him? How could it possibly be more than that?

Nothing about this felt wrong.

If nothing else, Roxas was certain he’d never been more comfortable with the idea of something in his life. This was the same person who gave him a shot at his own existence, all because Sora wouldn’t stop believing in him. It’d be wrong for Roxas to continue thinking of himself as an extension of Sora. Sora was Sora, and Roxas was Roxas. Suddenly, it was okay to think of Sora as more than just his Somebody.

Odd to think he’d reach this conclusion just from a simple outing at a bistro with a friend. He didn’t think he’d even allow his thoughts of Sora to go beyond ‘cute’ yet here they were.

He wondered if Sora felt the same. He wanted him to.

“Hey, Sora?”

Sora paused in the middle of his long, rambling thought process on who-knew-what—Roxas had stopped listening to what he was saying in favor of letting the timbre of his voice lull him into a relaxed state—and blinked rapidly as he was knocked out of his spiel.

“Yeah? What’s up Roxas?”

Roxas gently shoved his plate out of the way so that he could place his weight fully against the table, his face close enough to Sora’s that he could feel his breaths on his skin. Eyes lidded, pulse quickening. So in the moment, he wasn’t entire sure he could stop himself. Notably, Sora didn’t back away.

“Can I ask you something?”

Rather than that, Sora had leaned forward as well, smirking slightly as he tilted his head to the side. Again. _Cute_.

“Well sure. That’s why we’re here, isn’t it?”

And maybe, instead of asking anything at all, Roxas leaned forward just the extra bit and let their lips press together for only a moment. One small, chaste kiss. So inconsequential in the realm of what Roxas imagined kisses were like that he couldn’t fathom why it made his heartbeat that much faster. He wanted to place his hand over it, to feel it beating strong and evenly, and so completely as his own.

Instead, he cupped Sora’s jaw and pulled him closer again, closing his eyes fully this time.

It was longer, but he wanted to savor it. He wanted to enjoy the taste of cheesecake and strawberry on those warm, full lips. He wondered what would’ve happened if he sucked the bottom one into his mouth, or opened his and let their tongues dance. The sort of thing he’d seen others do in such intimate moments as this.

He doubted either of them were really ready for that though, especially in such a public place. So instead he pulled away, licking his own lips as they tingled and tasted of sugar.

It didn’t escape him that Sora had kissed him back.

Granted it was only on the second try, and it was even clumsier than it had been on Roxas’ end, but he’d done it. And it seemed to just hit him now as his eyes fluttered open, just a few seconds behind Roxas, and he gaped in surprise. His hand pressed over his mouth, his cheeks flushed.

“…What, um, what was that?” was Sora’s muffled response. Roxas, inexplicably it felt, couldn’t help but find that amusing.

“A kiss, you doof,” he chuckled. He almost wanted to do it again when Sora’s cheeks puffed out indignantly, his arms crossing as if he was ready to reprimand Roxas. The severity of it was lost in that pout, and Roxas could only laugh harder.

He couldn’t help it. It was just so _cute_.

“I know that! I mean…!” Sora trailed off then, the pout melting into a subtler, more unsure look. “Why did you kiss me?”

Because he wanted to.

Because he wanted to explore this. This new and exciting thing. He’d spent so much time as a nobody wondering what love was and all the while he felt it grow and grow. For his friends: for Hayner and Pence and Olette. For Axel and Xion. For Sora. It was so, so different with Sora, though. He didn’t even know how it happened, where it started. What it really was.

Maybe it was Sora’s vehemence at getting Roxas a body of his own. Maybe it was Sora’s insistence that Roxas deserved to be an individual that started it. Maybe it was feeling Sora’s feelings towards him: the excitement, the determination, the care. Maybe that was what helped it grow. He was such a _good person_ , Roxas couldn’t imagine _not_ falling this deep.

He didn’t know how to say any of this, though. It was already so overwhelming just to _feel_ it. How was he supposed to convey that?

“I-I don’t know…” he stuttered, finding himself stumbling for the first time that afternoon. And here it’d been going so smoothly. “I just did.”

That didn’t seem to be what Sora wanted to hear though, judging by the disappointment that clouded his eyes.

“Oh.”

And Roxas was floundering to fix that before it became a full-blown frown.

“But I do know that I like you! A lot.”

“…Oh!”

Just as quickly as it was there, the disappointed look was gone. In its place, something sparked. Something that swirled with more emotions than Roxas could place. Happiness, giddiness, anticipation, mischief, and more. And Sora leaned forward again, this time with intent, his arms crossed on the table and the corners of his eye crinkled from how bright his smile was.

“I like you too,” was all he needed to say to send a shock of pure glee through Roxas’ entire body.

Amongst not knowing quite what love was for the longest time, he’d also been puzzled as to what it was like to receive it. Maybe it was sharing ice cream on the clock tower or hanging out at the usual spot. Maybe it was making promises that were returned. Maybe it was knowing he could place his trust, even his life, in his friends’ hands. Maybe it was looking in someone’s eyes and seeing only softness there.

Maybe it was this. This elated, floaty feeling. This exciting notion that maybe someone wanted to be near him _this_ way. That someone wanted to get to know him, not out of necessity or obligation or friendliness, but out of pure want. That someone could look at him in a way that filled his stomach with flutters.

“Would you do that again?” Sora asked vaguely, leaning even closer so that he was almost draped over the table. Roxas knew what he was looking for.

It was even more of a shock to the system that someone would want to kiss him again.

And that this someone was _Sora_. That made it all the more special.

With that in mind, his eyes slipped shut and he closed the distance again.

In that moment, the bistro, the town, the entire world disappeared. Nothing else existed. Nothing but them.

**Author's Note:**

> Fun fact: skateboarding came into existence because surfers needed something to do when the waves were flat. The more you know.


End file.
